XN000022-1993-04-06 — Page 5

TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1993

exactly how the electoral arrangements for 1995 should be

organised, because on that there is no agreement and there is no

prescription in the Joint Declaration or, for that matter, по

precise prescription in the basic law.

When I went to Hong Kong, the position of the United Kingdom

Government about the 1995 elections was clear. The position of the United Kingdom Government, advised by many now retired, wise public servants, was to increase the number of directly elected

members of the Legislative Council.

That was the published

The position of the pro-

position of the British Government.

democracy parties in Hong Kong, who, you will recall, had swept the board in the elections in 1991, was similarly to increase the

number of directly elected members of the Legislative Council,

preferably by having half the Legislative Council directly elected.

The position of China was different. The position of China

was that there should be no increase in the number of directly

elected members of the Legislative Council because that would

involve, Chinese officials said, a change in the basic law.

There was another point of view, another argument put by

China. Some would doubtless argue that, when China put this

point of view publicly it was in breach of the Joint Declaration. What Chinese officials said, very clearly, was that, in addition

to there being no increase in the number of directly elected

members of the Legislative Council, the Governor of Hong Kong

should not appoint before 1997 to his Executive Council directly

elected legislators, so that others who were members of the

Legislative Council could continue to be but leading Liberals who

/HAD BEEN